“Provided planned revenues are achieved for the remainder of the year, the board is confident that the group will deliver its internal performance target for 2011, as revised at the time of the Interim announcement in August.”

Despite the improvement in performance, the group said sales from its continental European businesses measured in constant currency, reduced by five per cent over the 10-month period.

However, since the collective percentage gross margin of the Continental businesses remains ahead of last year, this has compensated for the loss of revenue, the group said.